Despite the leaps forward in mobile phone technology with crisp, clear screens and faster chips, batteries have made only sluggish progress. That has propelled a desire for longer battery life to the top of the list of factors considered by consumers when they purchase smartphones, according to a 2014 survey by the research firm IDC.So why is battery technology still underwhelming? Plenty of companies have been developing smarter battery technology for years, including methods to increase battery capacity tenfold or charge devices by pulling energy from the air. But lithium ion, the technology that most mainstream batteries are based on, is low cost and easily reproducible while being safe — so we’ll be stuck with it for the foreseeable future, said Charlie Quong, an executive at Mophie, a battery accessory maker, in an interview.Read Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/technology/personaltech/tips-and-myths-about-extending-smartphone-battery-life.html?_r=0

Are you busy running your small business? Juggling dozens of daily tasks isn't easy. A wall calendar and a pen-and-paper to-do list can help, but there's a smarter way to plan your workday: By using your Android smartphone. With the right apps you can plan your day, week, month or year – and really get things done. Whether you need to remember an appointment next month, or a business call later today, there's an app for you. Your Android phone comes with a basic calendar app out of the box, which integrates with Google Calendar and lets you schedule appointments, set reminders and jot down a basic to-do list. But the stock Calendar app can't do it all. Other apps have more options and deeper functionality to help you stay on top of things.​

The risk for the global handset industry to brace for a shortage in supplies of some key components, including displays, memory products and optical sensing devices, in 2017 is rising due to strong demand from China-based smartphone vendors, according to sources from Taiwan's handset supply chains.

The rise of China-based brands, notably Oppo and Vivo, in the global smartphone space, as well as efforts by China-based vendors to enhance their presence in the mid-range to high-end segment and to ramp up their overall shipments, have combined to scale up demand for handset components, said the sources.

While Samsung Electronics and Apple are expected to rank as the top-2 smartphone vendors globally in 2017, China-based Huawei, Oppo and Vivo will contest for the third to fifth positions. Huawei may ramp up its shipments to over 150 million units in 2017 compared to 139 million shipped in 2016, while Vivo may ship over 100 million in 2017, indicated the sources.

Taking cue from Oppo and Vivo, most smartphone vendors in China have been moving to focus on mid-range and high-end models with high price/performance ratios in order to raise the product ASPs, the sources noted.Inspired by market rumors indicating that Apple will adopt OLED panels for its next generation iPhone devices in 2017, China-based smartphone vendors, and others alike, have rushed to secure production capacity for small- and mid-size OLED panels, a move which will definitely cause a shortage in OLED panel supplies in 2017, commented the sources.

Meanwhile, the supply of small- and mid-size TFT LCD panels will remain tight in 2017 as the display size of mainstream smartphone models has shifted from the previous 5-inch to 5.5/5.7-inch, added the sources.Demand for high-end camera modules and other optical sensing devices will also expand significantly in 2017, said the sources, noting that Samsung has begun to adopt 16-megapixel cameras for its mid-range A-series models.

With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) done and over with, all eyes are now on Mobile World Congress (MWC) for a look at some of the hottest smartphones of 2017. The mobile expo, to be held in Barcelona from February 27 to March 2, is anticipated to include a number of major launches during the trade show, as well at pre-MWC 2017 events.​ Phones such as Nokia 8 Android flagship phone, Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus, among others are expected to launch ahead of MWC – though Samsung Galaxy S8 is likely to give the event a miss. Wondering which smartphones you can expect to see at MWC? Here’s a list of smartphone likely to launch at Mobile World Congress 2017.

In 2013, Google cofounder Sergey Brin questioned the ubiquity of smartphones and stated that they were “emasculating.” “Is this the way you're meant to interact with other people?” he asked a TED conference. “Is the future of connection just people walking around hunched up, looking down, rubbing a featureless piece of glass?” he continued.

While his critique was meant to help promote Google Glass—a technology that would ultimately go down as one of the tech behemoth’s biggest failures, he has a valid point. MIT professor Sherry Turkle has observed that smartphones are killing face-to-face conversation. And smartphone users who text while behind the wheel can put themselves and others at risk.

For all of their conveniences, smartphones can also isolate. To the extent that they draw a user into a user experience, they shut out the rest of the world. Part of the problem is the screen as a portal for a user experience. Even if you have a mega-sized smartphone, they are still measured in inches. That’s part of the reason users “hunch up” when looking them, to paraphrase Sergey Brin.

But it remains to be seen whether traditional screens (or monitors) will eventually become passé—or at least less pervasive. The latter possibility seems likely in the next few years as a spate of new non-traditional display technologies emerge—although judging by the fate of first iteration of Google Glass, dethroning the smartphone user interface is no easy feat.

The car windshield itself is poised to become a display interface—perhaps even showing digital billboards to passengers with the car. Both VR and AR technology continue to gain ground, but both are still niche technologies. Perhaps smart glasses or smart contact lenses will ultimately become popular technologies—at least for industrial and clinical applications. And then there is the company DAQRI, which is working on embedding AR technology into the traditional hard hat.

The human brain tells green from blue by relying on sophisticated decision-making areas of the brain, not those that first receive visual input. That finding, published March 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also hints that language isn’t necessary for categorizing colors.​

A GOOD NIGHT’Ssleep is hard to come by these days, whether it’s because of work, tending to young children, insomnia or sleep-related conditions such as sleep apnea. The good news is plenty of mobile apps can bring a more restful night. The best sleep-tracking apps come with a hardware component such as a wristband or under-the-sheet sensor and are more accurate than stand-alone apps because they have contact with the body during the night, says Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist and author of The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan: Lose Weight Through Better Sleep. “You want something that’s touching the skin,” he advises. Here are 10 mobile apps to help you track your sleep.Read Article: http://www.mensfitness.com/life/gearandtech/trackers-future